Prison is a common precursor to homelessness. Sadly, so is the care system. Rebecca Cox was 17 when she found herself on the streets after a life in Staffordshire care homes.

“The pathway just wasn’t there,” she says, “so in the end I ended up sleeping rough.” The back of the old bus station was the place she called home.

“As a girl,” she says, “it’s hard being out on the streets. I used to think sofa surfing was being homeless, it’s nothing compared to sleeping in doorways. In a doorway you’re a lot more vulnerable. There’s a lot more people around.”

Eventually, Rebecca headed to Manchester, forced out of Stoke-on-Trent, she claims, because the city was over-zealous in its use of the Vagrancy Act. “It meant anyone sitting down on the floor begging or sleeping was in an illegal position,” she says. “We were getting warnings, people were getting arrested. That’s why we ended up having to go to Manchester.”

Homeless Rebecca Cox has been urinated and spat on while living on the streets

Not that life 30 miles north was any better. “I’ve been urinated on and spat on,” recalls the 25-year-old. “There’s been people coming out of clubs starting fights with us - you get people shouting abuse.

“In Manchester they didn’t like you sleeping on main roads. Well I didn’t like sleeping in backs alleys where there’s no lights, no cameras. Anything could happen – and it does.”

‘Legal’ highs again form a part of Rebecca’s tale. But thankfully, like Gary, she has managed to turn her life around.

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“Me and my partner were strong-minded,” she explains. “We came off the legal highs. Some change one addiction for another - we did it different. We saved what money we could and got Cineworld passes and things like that. It took us away from what other people were doing.”

Rebecca, of Cobridge, returned to her hometown with her partner. “He came back and got a job and I followed,” she says. “By that time I was down to six-and-a-half stone, bruises everywhere, burn marks in my skin where I’d had fags put out on me.

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“I’ve been back a year now. I’m in a place, got my own puppy. Me and my partner have been clean for well over a year.”

Rebecca headed to Manchester, forced out of Stoke-on-Trent, she claims, because the city was over-zealous in its use of the Vagrancy Act

But memories of the streets still haunt her. “I lost a lot of my friends last year. One of my friends was left for dead in an alley for three days. “

Rebecca claims youngsters such as her are being let down when they come out of care. She also says they come under pressure to leave their hometown. “Something has massively gone wrong,” she says. “I don’t know want it is – whether the funding isn’t there.

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“As a homeless person when I went to the council they would try to put me out of county – and when they said that it would send me back to being that little kid when they’re trying to send you away.

“All my support is here, my friends are here, my partner is here, going out of county doesn’t solve any problems. That’s what they do to women. A man can get a place round here but for women it’s different. I’ve been turned away by the council on a Friday at five o’clock. That was when I didn’t have a partner. I was a woman alone on their own.”

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Again, Manna House has offered calm amongst the storm. “Places like this are absolutely amazing,” ponders Rebecca. “It’s places like this that make you still believe in life, where there are people who care about you. Even if we don’t want something to eat, even if we just want a chat and a whinge, they’re so nice. No matter what state your head is in they sort you out. I feel back on track now. I’m a hundred per cent more happy.”